Star's Strife
by Weeb that's a Sheep
Summary: After Star's negative emotions get the betters of her, A Mysterious Knight appears from the ashes of Star's emotion-induced Magic, the Knights purpose? To Serve her above all else until the pain inside her has subsided, Star begins her road to recovery of loss...With a Honor-bound Knight by her side.
1. Chapter 1

**Star's Strife**

 **Chapter 1: How to make a Servant**

Before arriving to the world known as Earth, Star Butterfly has never experienced such a deep pain as she was experiencing right now, her life was carefree and filled to the brim with fun and excitement, but now? the negative emotions inside her toiled with her heart like iron chains, she huddled on her bed tears started to stream down her face as she felt as if her heart was being stabbed by an icy cold dagger.

Her love for the Human Boy Marco Diaz has grown exponentially ever since the Blood Moon Ball, his unwavering kindness, his willingness to both protect and cheer up Star, his friendliness and tolerant nature was the many reasons why the Princess of Mewni fell in love with the mundane Human boy.

But her love for him was shattered into a million pieces when he fell in love with his almost lively crush, Jackie-Lynn Thomas, her was shattered love was rebuilt into a figment of jealousy for Jackie-Lynn Thomas, her blue eyes became green in Envy ever since they hooked up with one another.

She couldn't help herself...She never felt genuine despise for someone, that was until she witness the love of Jackie and Marco blossoming, she has hated Jackie-Lynn Thomas ever since, it was not a full frontal expressive hate, but the worse kind of hate, its the hate that's constantly bottled and desperately contained, storing more and more until it can't handle the massive amount and thus explodes in a fiery burst of anger and shards.

Star felt herself to be a way better love interest for Marco than Jackie, at least Star paid attention to Marco, at least Star actually spends time with him, a lot more time in fact! And yet here she sits, on her bed...Completely alone, her love with another person that doesn't deserve him.

Her eventually depression finally shifted to the opposite negative, she felt her fists clenched, her teeth grinding, her veins pumping, she felt...Angry, wrathful over her current predicaments, angry over how her love choose such someone else over her.

"Why Marco!?" She screamed aloud, she knew for a fact that Marco Diaz was with Jackie, so she had nothing to lose when she screamed, a wail of rage and downcast, she was like a child, screaming and tampering for she didn't get what she truly most desired, without any form of logical Reasoning, the wrath-stricken Star Butterfly grabbed her fractured wand, and began to blast various spells all over her room, her room was distorted and desecrated by every single blast.

Her furniture was transformed into living creatures of various kinds, snakes, spiders, narwhals, all the usual creatures that can be created from her magical scepter, she began to cry tears as she continued her spell-casting rampage, malpraticing her powers as she blasted holes within her room walls, burned up anything that was made of fabric and paper, and turn any form of furniture into something else entirely.

With all of her power within inside her, she blasted a hole within her closet door, causing smoke to erupt within her closet from the sheer force and power from the magical attack.

Star pushed her knees to her chest, dropping down to the floor as she began to wail in agony.

"...It's not fair..." Was all the Princess whispered, her voice, being toned with the a mixture of negative emotions, depression, anger, jealousy, grief and doubt, all of this finished off with a slight tinge of something else...Perhaps it was acceptance?

Star stopped crying as she heard footsteps, all of her emotions was replaced with regret, knowing for a fact that one of Marco's parents, was going to check up on her, due to her commotions, her emotions got the best of her, she should've kept her hidden grief within herself instead of letting it out like some sort of bomb.

But it wasn't the footsteps of her love's parents...It was something else entirely.

Star looked in absolutely awed as the newly-created creature loomed out of the smoke that the closet persisted, it towered over Star like a tower, its overly black hue being as dark as the shadow it cast over Star, its stance was cold and strong like an iron mace, its single horizontal line of a visor blazed like a furnace fire, and the armor it wore was sleek, sharp and riddled with spikes, almost as if it was forged by a legendary blacksmith, but the design was made by a Crazed bandit who thrived off of self-harm.

Its breath was pained yet intimidating, suggesting it was constantly struggling within itself, its weapon was curved and hooked, being able to both crush and tear flesh with a single swing, using its sheer weight and sharpness to cause as much bloodshed as possible, its buckler was thick and broad, with a single large spike protruding out of the iron-laden center, being able to both protect and cause harm with a single block.

To Star it looked like a black knight, with its brutal-looking armor but civilized pose and tone, the Knight finally spoke, but not before kneeling down to Star, almost as if she was his queen, and he was her eternal servant.

 **"...Princess Star...Your heart...Is tormented...This heeded...My call...I will serve...Eternally, until the pain inside of you is gone...Like ash in the wind..."** He said, his voice being deep and fear-inducing...But his words invoked a sense of honesty, heroism and honor, it actually gave Star hope...

 **"I will be here, no matter what...When others simply can't...For their own reasons or by the universes reasons..."** The Knight said, placing his buckler on his cape-covered back and his weapon being struck on the ground, the Knights gloves gripping the hilt of the murder weapon.

 **"I have served your Mother...And her Mother...And the mothers before...For the bearer of the Wand is my Queen, and I will serve her no matter what."**

"...Thank you..." Star began, earning the Knights fiery gaze, Star stared into the Knight's visor, not seeing eyes or anything except the fire that was blazing within the helm.

"But...What is your name?" She asked, the Knight looked down to the floor for a moment before answering.

 **"I go by many names...But...For now...I am called..."** The Knight paused once more, leaving Star in complete silence.

 **"Strife."**


	2. Chapter 2: The Long Line of Knights

**Star's Strife**

 **Chapter 2: The Long Line of Knights**

The fields of daisy and buttercup greatly contrasted the following Knight known as Strife, his gait was quiet as he followed the struggled Star through the flower field, he walked through the flowery meadow with a life-dulled stare, her mind deep in thought.

 **"The road to recovery is paved through...Peace and harmony..."** Strife spoke, his voice deep and monotonous, yet despite his tone, the words he spoke of were poetic and deep, it made Star think, plucking several flowers within the flowery field and staring at them intently.

"If you served my Mother, why didn't she tell me about you?" Star suddenly asked with a slightly unnerved brow, the Knight of Strife hummed under his breath before he answered the Princess of Mewni with a truthful tone.

 **"Your Mother was a great queen...She did not need me for long..."** Star felt a little down from this fact, needing to have such a knight by her side to help her through her wicked Heartache.

"What does that mean for me then? Am I seriously...This bad of a princess, that I need someone like you to help me get out of it?" Star said as she felt her eyes starting to water with a sense of self-hate in her eyes, the Knight was silent, his breathing even muted as he kneeled down to the Princess of Mewni, the current Wand bearer, his queen that he must serve no matter what.

But instead of kneeling down to Star like a Knight to ones queen, he instead, presented himself to her, like a kind aged friend, despite his face being only a flaming horizontal line of a visor, Star could feel the look of sympathy that Strife was giving to her, his breath was calm and slow as he brushed the Princess's hair with his metal hand, to Star, she expected it to be painful due to the jagged metal and protruding spikes coming out of Strife's gauntlets.

He caressed her hair like some hair brush, the touch was tendering and warming, despite the cold metal that Star felt.

 **"Every Princess...Every Queen...Faces heartache...The only difference is the pain that they feel, it doesn't mean you are weaker...It only means that you are growing..."** Strife said kindly, Star wasn't entirely convinced, but she did wiped the welled up tears from her eyes.

"...Can you tell me about your time with my mother and the ancestors before me?" Star asked suddenly, wanting to learn about this Knight known as Strife, the Knight was somber and sober, he was completely silent as he rested his weapon on the ground, planting it with a slow but powerful motion.

 **"You are my Queen...My Princess, your words is the only speech I will listen to beyond my own."** The Knight spoke obediently as Flower sat on the ground, the flowers acting as a sort of cushion for the Princess of Mewni, ready to listen to the tales of the Knight known as Strife.

* * *

Star's mother sighed under her breath as she trekked through the many forests of the Kingdom of Mewni, she was younger than she was now, still growing and ready to become the next queen, she gripped her wand with more effort as she began to hear whispers of a conniving and cruel voice, the voice was tinged with echoes and growls.

"What do you want...Doubt?" She asked aloud, the voice began to giggle wickedly as the shadows of the forest began to group together, the blots of the shadows being akin to a black ink, tainting any form of light with its trail of shadows, the shadows began to mold and form, with a knight sprouting out of the mass of shadows.

The Knight was thin and tall, towering over Star's mother like a pine tree to a lumberjack, the knight wheezed and cough out bits of black tinted spew and sinew, before flashing a smile that was riddled with rows upon rows of white-shined teeth on its featureless face, its armor was decaying like rusting metal, flakes of its formerly strong armor simply flaking off at various edges and ridges of the Knights armor.

 **"I was just making sure...That the Queen doesn't need me..."** Doubt said with a grin, crouching down to the upcoming queen of Mewni so the Knight of Doubt can level with the upcoming princess.

"I won't ever need you Doubt..." The queen said, the Knight giggled in response, not at all being convinced by the queen's words, her sullen attitude and her somewhat weakened stance.

 **"Oh really now? What I see...Is just a weak Child! Who isn't fit to rule the land...Who isn't fit to rule anything...Who isn't fit to be a hero to her people..."** The Eyeless knight said as it jabbed a accusing and cold finger to the upcoming queen's chest, he berating caused Star's mother to glare at him in a defiant manner.

 **"Just admit it, you wastrel...You are weak...And you will bring your kingdom to its knees!"** Doubt mocked with a fiendish laugh, raising the ire of the queen even more so, she shadowed her eyes by looking at the grass and moss-covered ground.

 **"Its to the point...That I'm ashamed to even be linked to you..."** The Knight of Doubt said with a whisper to the Queen's ear, Star's mother was absolutely silent, as she heard the Knights words.

"ENOUGH!" She said with a roar, Doubt laughed as he disappeared into figments of shadows as Star's mother attempted to blast the Knight of doubt with a beam of golden-bright light.

"I am not...A weakling...I am not afraid...I am ready to become queen...No matter what Doubt!" The upcoming queen said, completely ready to blast the Knight of Doubt into vaporized dust, the demoralizing servant giggled as he formed back into his more malleable and knightly form.

 **"Prove it."** Was all the Knight of Doubt said as a sword appeared out of the shadows, the blade was beautifully-crafted and heavenly-balanced, a perfect contrast to the deteriorating and monstrous-looking Knight.

The Knight and the Princess of Mewni clashed with one another, the ground shook like an earthquake, the trees splinted and the leafs burned within the battle between The upcoming Queen and the Doubt within herself raged on.

* * *

She stood between a horde of monsters and her kingdom, she was the last defense of her home, if she would be slain in battle, then the Kingdom of Mewni will cease to exist, they growled and roared at the lone heroine as they waited for their leader to command a charge against the lazer-sword wielding queen.

The queen was heavily wounded, blood spurted out of her many cuts and gashes as she still remained standing, around her was littered with copious amount of monster corpses, each of them heavily differed from one another.

The only difference is the death-defying wound they received when they attempted to slay Mewni's last defender, a burning gash that roasted the monsters insides while purging their scales, skin and fur.

Solaria, the Monster Carver remained vigilant, silently breathing out heavy breaths as the commander of the monsters finally moved up to the front of the line, her valiance was respectable and impressive, willing to go against any form of evil, no matter how much or how powerful.

 **"Your wounds are impeccable, their weapons are sharp, their shields broad...But that only means one word: Unacceptable!"** The Monster carver heard.

But...There was someone that accompanied the War hero, from the many blood pools of various slain creatures and beasts they began to clump together like butchered pieces of meat being packaged together, the Knight arose from the pools of the slain, the Knight roared a beastly roared as it shook off the coat of monster blood,

Its heavy armor was massive and gigantic, as if the armor was solely dedicated and created for protecting the innocent rather than seeking out destruction, mountain-like shoulderpads, mallet-like gauntlets, tree trunk-like legs along with a demonic-looking helm, covering the entity of the Knight's head and face except its two emerald green eyes.

The blade of the Knight was massive and crude, looking like a piece of heavily sharpened stone rather than actual metal, with many spikes protruding out of the blade like a serrated edge

 **"Do you require the blade of Justice Oh Queen? "** The Knight said quietly as its green eyes stare at Solaria, she simply pointed her blade at the horde of monsters.

"I need you right now...Justice." Solaria ordered as she sprinted towards the army of monsters, not caring about her well-being.

 **"I will do it my queen..For I am...JUSTICE!"** the Knight roared loudly before charging into the army of monsters, joining his queen with this battle.

* * *

Star was silent as she heard the tales unfold before her, she thought for a moment before speaking to Strife.

"So, you were Doubt...And Justice?" The Knight of Strife nodded obediently to Star's question as he continued to instruct the young blonde princess.

 **"Every Queen has heartache, no matter how strong or smart they are...In the end...No one can accept...Strife..."** The Knight said almost ironically, Star couldn't help but sigh from the Knight's words.

"So then Strife...I'm not sure frolicking around a field of flowers will help me..." Star said with a tinge of doubt in her voice.

 **"the many queens before you, would always love to tread through the fields of daisies, it gave them harmony...And I admit, throughout years upon years of doing this, it gives me harmony as well."** The Knight known as Strife defended the pass time of walking through a field of flowers.

"But I'm not like my mothers before me...I'm far different than them!" Star shouted back, catching Strife's silence.

"I don't want to be like mother...I don't want to be like my grandmothers, I just want to be myself..." Star continued throwing away the plucked bundle of flowers that she picked earlier, the Strife Knight was surprisingly taken aback from such a claim, after a split second of thinking from the Knight of Strife, he finally spoke up.

 **"Your words are golden Princess Star...What is something that gives you...Harmony so I may help achieve it?"** He asked in a gentle voice, Star got up from where she was sitting at, as she placed a finger on her chin in contemplation.

"I think I have an idea, I never tried it before, but Marco showed it to me a couple of days ago." Star concluded, somewhat lighting up from her idea with a small but hopeful smile on her face.

* * *

 **"I have never experienced...This...Kind of gathering before..."** Was all Strife said as he noticed several black three-holed balls being roll through a shiny lane, where a set of white pins were knocked down before.

The two Mewnians were at the local bowling alley, it was quite busy, almost every single lane of the bowling was already taken,

"I never have either, so its going to be quite a learning for the both of us! Anyway, Janna, how do you bowl?" Star asked her black-haired friend who didn't seem to mind the quiet but ominous knight known as Strife.

"Eh, its nothing to crazy Star, you just got to roll the bowling ball down the lane to knock those pins down, just watch me." Janna said in a confident voice as she charged up a shot, with some patience Janna got the ball rolling down the lane at blazing speed, getting a strike within her first try.

"Yes! See? Its pretty easy Star, you try, remember to put three fingers into the bowling ball." Janna instructed the curious and willing to learn Star, she listened with a quick nod and a grin on her face.

 **"What is this...Sport called?"** Strife asked suddenly, he was like a curious cat, staring at the rolling bowl ball.

"Well, it isn't really much of a sport, but its called bowling." Janna answered as she watched Star get a gutter ball from her first attempt.

"Oh darn...I got a gutter..." Star said in dismay, Janna only giggled as she patted Star's back.

"Don't worry about it, no one's perfect." Janna said as she gave Star another bowling ball, this ball felt more lighter for the Princess, with a understanding nod from Star, the Princess attempted to knock some pins down once more, she rolled down the ball through the lane, the lightness of the ball being easy to throw down to the lane, getting five of the ten pins down.

"See! You're a swift learner Star, good job." Star smiled from her accomplishment, she then noticed that Strife was simply just watching the whole ordeal play out.

"Here Strife, you try." Star handed the Bowling ball to the Knight, Strife actually yelped from such a sudden change.

 **"...Me?"** He squeaked quietly, Star urged the Knight to try at least.

"Yeah Strife, I'm kind of having fun, you should be having fun too." Star responded, Strife grabbed a hold of the bowling ball, grabbing it in a clunky way with both of his hands.


	3. Chapter 3: Solaire of Justice

**Star's Strife**

 **Chapter 3: Solaire of Justice**

Star entered into the Marco Household with a small but fortunately sincere on her smile, finding enjoyment in bowling with her friend Janna, along with the silliness of The Knight of Strife accidentally crushing a bowling ball in his hands as he attempted.

All of her joy quickly shriveled as she spotted her love lying on the couch of his living room, she dropped of all her things in succession once she saw what Marco was doing.

Star's heart began to tear piece by piece as she saw her love, Marco Diaz openly kissing his girlfriend, Jackie-Lynn Thomas right in the middle of the living room, they weren't even being exceptionally romantic, not treating every single waking moment with each other like as if were there last, they were being nonchalant with their love, simple-minded and unextravagant about the ordeal of her romance, they kissed each other once again as they cracked several jokes at each other, giggling like two sickening sweethearts.

It only made Star quietly cry, silent flowing tears streaming down her cheeks as she escaped to her room so that her love couldn't see her in such a damaged and broken state. she threw herself on her bed as she tried to fight the tears of her heartache.

"Why...Marco..." Was all Star said, her words were spoken between heavy breaths and whimpers, she was starting to cry once again, but someone...or rather something stopped her from doing so.

 **"Remember...Star Butterfly...The happiness of one is greater than the happiness of none..."** The Knight known as Strife recited, his voice being cool and crisp, Star turner her whole body so that she had her back on the covers of her bed, noticing that Strife was now carrying all of Star's things that she dropped when she saw Marco and Jackie embracing one another.

Her purse, the bowling ball bag that she borrowed from Marco's father...And her wand...

The wand morphed as Strife held it, it seemed like nothing change when the Knight of Strife held the wand, with the difference simply being that the wings were more bigger, more sharper and the pink hue was more of a purple color.

It made Star want to question the Knight of Strife but didn't do so as she soaked in Strife's words, without a single sound, the Knight of Strike slowly placed by Star's things, her wand being neatly placed beside her and her little bag within her bed's nightstand.

"What do you mean by that Strife?" Star asked as she hugged herself tightly, the Knight of Strife took a deep breath as he sat on the flow, crossing his legs and stretching his armored arms.

 **"It means...It would be best...For one person to be happy...Than no one to be."** The Knight repeated, this time with a little more simplification.

"Are you saying that I should let Marco be happy with Jackie?" Star questioned, the Knight of Strife paused for at least thirty seconds before responding.

 **"I'm saying...Not everything is a knot, My Queen...Everything will unravel, everything will be torn apart...You must be patient...I have taught one of your grandmothers about the concept of patience...Its a difficult subject for your line to grasp it seems."** it was the Princess's turn to be quiet, she considered the plan of waiting for Marco and Jackie to break up some time ago, she believed that it was never going to happen, he was in love with her since the very beginning and Star only met Marco a full year ago, she had no chances.

"What if I wait a long time...And he's still with her?" Star questioned the Knight, still doubting the Knight's wisdom.

 **"Then you must learn to let go."** Star shadowed her face to avoid Strife from seeing her inner turmoil play out within her mind, she replayed the same words that Strife just told her.

'Let go...Let go...Let go...' was the only thing the Princess heard in her mind, as if it was as constant as her heartbeats, going faster and faster once she felt a sudden boost of anger inside of her.

"Its not fair!" Star said with a frustrated shout, without a second thought, Star quickly went for her wand, wanting to blast down her room into pieces and chaos once again, but before she could even grab her wand, her hand was grabbed the Knight of Strife.

"Let me go Strife! Let me go! Let me go!" Star demanded as Strife hung Star in the air by her wrist, Star attempted to kick Strife right in his helmet-covered face but to no avail.

 **"Anger is not the way My Queen...Only through Peace...And Harmony..."**

"You're not going to solve this like you did with my grandmothers and my mom! I'M NOT LIKE THEM!" Star roared...Strife was absolutely silent...

 **"...Your words are golden...My Queen...Forgive me for my suffrage..."** Strife softly let go of the Princess's wrist, causing her to drop to the bed, bouncing up and down for only a moment, the Knight of Strife sighed deeply as he kneeled down to his queen.

he bowed as he clasped his hands together, silently begging for forgiveness from the Princess of Mewni.

 **"I apologize...For my insistence, Your words are golden and yet my ears are tin...You are not like your mothers...And its my own part that I must see that."** Star was quiet, a little bit ashamed of her outburst.

"I'm sorry too...Strife...And I forgive you." Was all Star said with a deep breath, Strife seem to ease up in his stance and mood once he heard his Queen's golden-glinted words.

 **"Perhaps...I shall...Try a different approach to help you through your path...My Queen...Tomorrow Morning and the whole day throughout, the road to happiness may be a journey around the world...or a quick visit to the forest."**

"That sounds good...But...Can you leave me alone? I think I just need some sleep...I need to cool off..." Star as the Knight finally stood up, only to bow once again obediently.

 **"Have a nice rest...Princess."** The Strife said as he suddenly disappeared in a puff of black smoke, the same kind of smoke that he first arrived in when Star was in her state of magical outburst.

* * *

Justice looked on to the corpse-ridden battlefield with a hidden grimace on his armored face, the Knight of Justice followed his queen closely, his height towering over the bald-headed Queen of Mewni.

Solaria growled under her breath as she was looting various things from the monster soldiers, pieces of metal armor and non-crude weapons were the main objects that were looted from the slain monsters, slowly handing the loot to the Knight of Justice so that he could carry all of the loot for her.

"Hmmm...Do you like it when the Monsters think they can defeat the two of us?" Solaria suddenly asked as she gave Justice a broken ironsword so he may carry, the Knight known as Justice spoke to his Queen, his cape bellowing within the dead sea of a battlefield.

 **"Only when they realize we are simply stronger than them."** Solaria laughed at Justice's words, believing that they were said in a tone of snarkery, before the Monster Carver could respond to the Knights words with some approval or rebuttal, she then noticed a small group of figures far away at the ends of the dead sea, they were wearing heavy cloaks and were trying to collect several corpses of the slain monster army, despite the cloaks that they wore, Solaria knew for sure that those were monsters trying to collect the dead for proper burials.

"Oh! Looks like we have some unfinished business to deal with!" Solaria said with delight, her lazer sword glowing brightly as she began to sprint to the small group of scavenging monsters. Justice gasped loudly as he dropped all of the stolen loot he was carrying around.

The scavenging group of monsters stood in shock and fear as they noticed the Queen of Mewni charging at them with a pair of bloodthirsty eyes, she was close enough to slice the nearest next to her in one single swing.

"Time to die!" Solaria roared as she brought her blade down, there was no blood, no screams, no gore...For there was Justice.

The Knight of Justice's sword parried against the blazing blade of Solaria as the Knight got in front of the monster, effectively protecting the innocent bystander with his own well-being, The queen, she looked absolutely shocked, just as surprised as the cowering monster that Justice saved.

"What are you doing Justice!?" Solaria Screamed in the Knight's face, the Knight was slow and quiet as he spoke in a deep and serious tone.

 **"What a Knight must do."** With a loud growl, The Knight of Justice pushed Solaria away causing her to tumble several feet back, she quickly recovered as her eyes were tainted both in anger and in wrath.

 **"Do you know why I'm called...Justice?"** The Knight questioned as Solaria roared and sprinted once again, doing a jumping slash against the Knight's helm, with surprising speed, the Knight sidestepped out of the way before slamming the Queen with the hilt of his sword, causing her to yelp in pain as she felt the pommel bruise her back, she quickly got up and tried to spill the Knight's non-existent guts, to which the Knight rolled back two feet away, dodging it despite the heavy armor he wore.

 **"I am called Justice...For Justice is both a Sword and a shield."** Solaria growled loudly as she quickly redirected to the now fleeing monster scavengers, with a wicked smile on her face, the Queen of Mewni threw her blade like some sort of throwing hatchet, without a single word, the Knight ran in front of the throwing blade, the lazer sword going through his metal chest.

"..." Solaria was absolutely silent as she saw what she just did to her loyal friend, despite her many battles, if it weren't for the Knight of justice, she wouldn't have lived to tell the tale and yet here she did, practically attacking her own friend in her bloodlust.

 **"Justice...Is when you have a sword...To slay evil, but a shield, to protect the innocent..."** Justice still began to recite his sayings despite his newly acquired wound, Justice dropped down to his knees with a light groan, with the grip of both of his hands, the Knight pulled out the blade, it was covered in this black ink-like liquid, despite the Queen's mistake, Justice slowly handed Solaria her wand, despite the wound, he was still the loyalest thing that the Queen could ever have.

 **"Justice is the compassion of mercy, the way of the sword that does not seek blood, but seeks honor, victory and...Justice."**

"I'm sorry...Justice..." Solaria said with a tone that implied regret, her strong and bold demeanor cooling off and showing a more lighter side, a more emotional side instead of the battle-hardened and heavily-feared Monster Carver.

 **"...There's no need to apologize...My Queen...Solaria..."** The Knight slowly got up, groaning lightly as his new wound bled profusely.

 **"Perhaps...My time is not needed anymore...Remember Solaria...You are...Justice, not some Monster Carver..."** The Knight known as Justice began to deteriorate as he bowed to his queen, his armor rusting bit by bit, Solaria watched in shock as the Knight began to wither before her eyes, his cape, once grand and heroic burned up like ash and scattered by the wind of the battlefield, his armor began to fall apart, the silver pieces dropping to the ground, rusting like a decaying husk before turning into clumps of dirt.

"...Justice..." Was all Solaria said to the Knight, the last words that the knight heard before fading into obscurity...The Monster Carver, the Queen of Mewni simply sat on the ground of the battlefield, the cloaked monsters slowly resumed what they doing, collecting the deceased so they may have a proper burial.

It went on for hours as they loaded the wagon, took it back to where they lived and traveled back to gather more, all in the while, Solaria didn't attempt to even brandish her weapon against them or even had the thought of hurting the monsters...In fact, she even helped them once or twice.

XXXXXXXX

Marco Diaz woke up in what it seems to be a wasteland, the sky was black like oil, the air sprinkled bits and pieces of blackened dust, when Marco took a deep breath, he gagged from the inhale of dust and ash.

"Where am I? How did I get here?" Marco said to himself as he got up from where he lying, the wasteland, it looked like an american dessert, loose slit and dirt was the main terrain of this strange land despite the fact that the Wasteland went out for thousands unto thousands of miles and yet there was nothing, like a whole plot of land that was inside of a black-tinted dome.

 **"You came here...Because of me..."** Marco heard behind him, he turned around to see...Strife, the Knight of Strife.

"Well...Get me out of here or else!" Marco got into a fighting stance, ready to take on the Knight known as Strife, the Knight didn't even thought about unsheathing his weapon on his princess's lover.

 **"I will...But right after I must advise you of something."** Marco curved an eyebrow as he still remained steady and ready to kick the Knight's metal-covered behind.

 **"Remember this...Boy...No matter how grand you feel...During the ecstasy of the moments...Strife...Will always come for you...And he will always get his way."** The Knight turned into smoke as Marco woke up once again, this time he was actually at his room.


	4. Chapter 4: The Dust of the Knight

**Star's Strife**

 **Chapter 3: The Dust of the Knight**

 **"Did you sleep well my queen?"** Strife asked the Princess of Mewni as she was presented with a breakfast tray, the knight despite his fearsome appearance and large stature carefully lined the silverware in their correct orders for the Princess, she looked astounded from Strife's act of politeness as the Knight slowly placed the tray on her lap.

"Yes...I did, thank you Strife for Breakfast..." Star said awkwardly, the breakfast mainly consisted of a small pile of pancakes, each of them tinted with blue-berry pits and drizzled with a small splash of Maple syrup, along with the main pancake dish was a side plate of freshly cut fruits like apple and orange, adding some more nutrition to the meal.

 **"A strong breakfast is a strong day."** The Strife of Knight said with a cool voice as he turned around Star, allowing the Princess to eat in privacy instead of being watched by the Knight of Strife, she took her first bites of the pancakes, the sweet yet stingy taste of the pancake was complimented by its soft and chewy texture. She smiled in joy from the taste.

"Where did you learn how to cook breakfast like this Strife?" Star asked in wonder as she began to eat in a more voraciously and motivated manner.

 **"I have served many queens...They all have specific tastes and wants in their meal."** Strife stoically answered as he folded his arms in a patient and waiting manner.

"Well, thank you anyway Strife, no one has ever served me breakfast in bed, willingly at least!" Star giggled at her little joke, Strife remained quiet, but scoffed a quick, dishonest and weak. **"Hah."** Not really finding any true enjoyment from Star's humor.

"So, do you have any plans for us Strife? I hope it doesn't involve any flowers..." Star hoped, Strife noticeably flinched from Star's words, he quickly pulled out a waxy scroll within the folds of his armor, without a word, the Knight of Strife crossed something out from the scroll, Star didn't want to call the knight out, as he stashed it back within his armor ridges.

 **"What would you like to do today My queen? We have the whole universe to explore...Our potential for euphoria is limitless."** The Knight asked of the Princess, she placed a finger on her chin as she chirped "Thanks for putting me on the spot Strife...Let me think..." She said as she pondered on where to go.

"How about we go to the cloud Lounge? I heard that a party of three gets in for free!" Star suggested, Strife raised a metaphorical eyebrow.

 **"...Cloud Lounge?"** The Strife of Knight asked with a definite question mark, Star giggled at the Knight's clueless mood.

"You know, where you dance and stuff? Like, have general fun?" The Strife Knight looked even more confused from such a concept.

 **"...As you wish my Queen...But who shall be your...Third companion?"** The Knight asked with a quick and obedient bow.

"Hmmm...How about Marco Diaz I bet he has nothing to do today, how about it Strife?" The Strife Knight shuddered from his Queen's words, the person that caused her harm, yet it was the same person that could heal her, the same person that could save her, he was like a double-edged sword, it could both protect and harm, even at the same time.

 **"Your words are Golden, Queen...Remember, The upheaval of a knot can only be through natural causes, not through force."**

"What are you implying Strife?" Star questioned the Knight with a slightly hurt look on her face, the Knight sighed under his breath before he spoke.

 **"I'm saying, that, you should bring your Marco Diaz, to this...Cloud...Lounge."** Strife said, his voice being slow and clunkly as his old-fashioned clashed with new concepts.

"Yep! and thats what I'm going to do, and you can be our chaperone in case something bad happens!" Star said with a happy voice, Strife felt a small tinge of pride within himself when he saw the young princess flashing a genuine smile.

 **"I will protect you as I normally do."** The Knight of Strife responded as he bowed obediently to Star, causing her to look a little irked from Strife's insistence on obeying her like some kind of servant.

"Strife, you don't need to bow to me, like I said, I'm not like my mom or my grand mothers..." Star said as an attempt for the Knight to stop being so stingy.

 **"As you wish...Princess Star."** The Knight answered as instead of bowing like some sort of overly controlled servant towards royalty, the Knight simply nodded, Star shrugged lightly from Strife's action.

"Well, that's a start I guess..." Star said as she was finished with her breakfast, getting out of her bed and going to the bathroom, to properly change into her more everyday attire, after minutes of the Knight of Strife quietly waiting for Star to get ready for the morning, she finally came out in the same attire as she did when she first went to the Cloud Lounge with Marco for the first time.

"Wait here Strife, I'll ask Marco if he's free for today." Star instructed the Knight, he silently nodded in return as the Princess went downstairs to see if Marco was up and ready to party at the Cloud Lounge.

* * *

The Cloud lounge bristled with life and light as the stage lights began to twist and turn as an attempt to make the lounge more lively than it seems, the party goers laughed and dance with a high tune of energy as the music blasted with a rhythmic surge of beautiful yet catchy, adrenaline -inducing music.

Despite the music and the general mood, Star wasn't moving a inch, she sighed under her breath as she sat backwards on one of the Cloud Lounges chairs as Strife motionlessly stood next to her, not moving an inch in akin to his queen.

 **"At least we brought one of your...Human friends here Queen...She seems to be heavily invigorated."** The Strife pointed out as an attempt to find a silver lining in the whole predicament, Star stared at her friend, Janna who was having the time of her life, never experiencing such a crazy anomaly known as the Cloud lounge.

"I wish it was Marco instead..." Was all Star said, trying to hide her disappointment by cupping her face into the back of the chair as she sighed deeply.

 **"...Princess Star...Your happiness cannot be sated through the harboring of...Love."** Star shot a look at the Knight of Strife with a light but hurtful glare.

"I wasn't going to do that Strife...You know that!" Star defended herself, Strife didn't look convinced in the slightest, folding his arms as he scoffed loudly in return.

 **"Please, do not lie, my Queen, your emotions can never be bottled, nor can they masked."** The Strife of Knights responded bluntly to counterclaim's Star's words, she sighed once again as she felt small droplets of tears rolling down her face.

"Its not fair Strife...I only been on earth for more than a year, and I know more about Marco than Jackie ever does! Heck! I bet she doesn't even know his Middle name! I know his middle name!...And yet here I am...Without him as he spends more time with Jackie..." Star lamented as her voice started to shake and become weaker and weaker for each passing statement.

"...Its like he thinks he cares about her more than me..." Star said in a depressed tone.

 **"That is not true, you know that Star."** Strife said, addressing his queen by her name, not some folly title of royalty, it was enough for Star to look at the Knight, her eyes were teary and torn, she finally spoke, her voice being damaged and pained.

"...You're right...Strife..." The Princess said, then without a second thought, Strife hugged the Princess, she flinched from the contact of the Knight, he was as cold as the metal that he was made of, despite the coldness, Star could feel a trickle of warmth, as if the fires within the Knight acted like a warming hearth rather than a blazing inferno.

 **"Your peace...Is fractured...Your happiness has been beaten, the seeds of your sorrow have finally been planted...It would be best to not tend it."** The Knight recited as he slowly brushed the golden blonde's long hair.

"But how can I not?" Star questioned back, wanting to fight against the Knight's words.

 **"If you can't...Grow the seeds...Into something better than sorrow..."** The Knight retorted as he let go of the Princess, allowing her to have some space for herself.

 **"Find happiness...Find joy without your love, find joy in yourself...You were able to do this when you were young, Star."** Star thought for a single moment as she began to contemplate Strife's words.

"Maybe I need to blow off some steam..." Star concluded as she got up from her seat, the Knight looked motionlessly hopeful to say the most, the fires within his visor began to burn a little bit brighter from the Young Princess's words.

"C'mon Strife, lets bring Janna back to earth, do you know any place where I can like...Fight and not hurt anyone? I know...Its sounds stupid but I feel like you a place Strife." Star asked of the Knight of Strife, the Knight paused before answering, wondering if the idea he obtained was enough to suffice's Star's inner turmoil.

 **"I believe I do."** The Knight answered.

* * *

 **"Welcome...To my home dimension..."** The Knight of Strife said with a cool voice as he bowed to Star once they teleported to the land through traces of smoke and brimstone, presenting his dimension to the Princess of Mewni, she was both curious and shocked from such a dimension.

The air was cold and littered with specs and dashes of ash and shredded metal, yet Star could breath perfectly within the sediment-filled atmosphere, the cloudless sky was black like crude oil and as thick and as heavy as mud.

the dirty sand-covered ground had many spires protruding out of the landscape, spires of unrefined sharpened metal, sticking out of the land like arrows skewering a poor fellow.

The wind slashed against the hole-filled metal spires and mountains as they made flute-like harmonies, they played like controlled symphonies despite looking like a structure of anarchy and savagery, sounds of both beauty and tranquility despite the cruel and inhospitable look of the spires, it brought a strange sense of serenity towards the Princess ears.

 **"This is where my Duty both begins and ultimately ends...My body is molded from the rain of the tar sky, my voice is gained from the music of the spires, my strength is from the sand of the ground, all of this only being ignited by your spirit Princess."** Strife explained as he began to take slow steps within the metal wasteland, the land responding to every step the Knight took, the sand hardening and the air becoming filtered of sediment and dust.

 **"Now..."** The Knight of Strife lifted both of his gauntlets up in air, causing the earth to shake and sprout out numerous more spires out of the ground, causing Star to yelp from the sudden eruption of metal spires.

 **"Your own strength will be tested...Star."** The Knight said with a low voice as suddenly, one of the single newly-made spires began to shake and fall apart, bits and large chunks of the metal spire falling and sinking into the sand, Star realized that there was something inside of the spire as the figure walked out of the shattered spire.

The Knights armor was crudely made and almost animal in nature, barely fitting the tall and muscular build of the Knight, pieces of the armor were never the same type of size and shape, one shoulder pad was twice the size of the other and was riddled with spikes, its shin guards were either spiked or clunky, its helm was big and kept together with fixtures of smelted metal and chains.

All of this ugly and poorly-crafted armor coupled with a single sword, a sword that as long as Star herself, being curved and beautifully-crafted with silver and steel, the Knight stood lifelessly as Star simply stared at the Knight.

 **"For I am..."** Strife suddenly fell limp, as if he was a machine without a battery, losing all of its life as its fiery gaze completely extinguished, after a second of silence, the Crude Armor Knight eyes began to glow a hue of yellow, the Knight twisted and shook as its bodyparts began to pulse with life.

 **"The Knight of Humility...Celena the Shy's personal Knight...I taught that her vast knowledge never meant she was better than the common people...I will teach you this simple lesson once again by force."** The Knight said, his voice being raspy and almost lizard-like as it held its sword with both of its hands, Star quickly got out her wand as she look more determined than ever.

"Come on...I'm ready for you." Star said as the Knight now known as Humility roared loudly, causing the sediment from the air to clear out as if they were pushed away from a gust of wind, Star's wand glowed brighter than ever before as she channeled her emotions into testing her mettle against the Knight.


	5. Chapter 5: Wands vs Swords

**Star's Strife**

 **Chapter 5: Wands vs. Swords**

A Strife-possessed Humility unsheathed his sword, the wind blowing and the dusty sediments were cleared out with a single unsheathe of the Knight's sword, the crude-armor of the Knight cracked and screamed from the shear wind cleaving force of his sword, just being out of its case like some power limiter, chaining the sword with metal casing.

Star looked upon the sword with a sense of awe, it was definitely enchanted with some kind of magic, it felt like the sword was just as powerful as her magic wand, Humility began to speak, slowly moving his sword in front as the pure power of the sword began to rivet through the atmosphere

 **"Similar to the Queen's wand, we Knights have our personal weapons that are infused with great power, Humility's case is this curved bastard sword right here, a single swing with this can cause mountains to split in two, a single parry can result in a earthquake, and a single slash could cleave the air into the four winds of the north, south, east and west!** **"** Humility explained as Star gripped her wand a little bit more stronger than ever before.

 **"Yet, with such great power, one must be contained to use it for good, this is the same lesson of how I taught your Great Grandmother's, Celena the Shy...Now, I will teach you the same lesson this day!"** Humility roared out a beastly growl as he stabbed his sword in the ground, causing the ground to shake and shatter like the crackling of glass, Star Yelped loudly in shock as the ground began to split and erode into multiple pieces.

"Not if I have something to say about that! Take this!" Star said, blasting a beam of high concentrated energy against the Humble Knight, with nonchalance, the Knight deflected the beam with his legendary sword, the beam disappearing into figments of mist once it was blocked by the Knight's weapon.

"Emerald Dagger Storm!" Star called out, blasting a Fletcher buffet of Green-bladed daggers, with a roar, The Humble knight born from Strife began to spun his blade like a a windmill in the middle of a tornado, the daggers spun out of control from the explosive gale that the spinning blade was producing from the sheer speed it was being twirled around.

Star attempted to fire another attack with her wand, until she almost fell into one of the increasingly more poignant abyss-like crevices that were still forming from the tearing earth, Massive rocky spikes sprouted out of the deep chasms as they all seemed to attempt to skewer Star with their obsidian-shard tips.

 **"Watch your step! My Queen!"** Humility said as he struck his sword against the ground several times, causing spikes of earth to erupt from the sand, Star swiftly dodged them, her nimble movement coupled with her thin and easy fitting frame helped her dodge the many spikes of sand and metal.

With a scoff, the Knight of Humility began to twirl his sword like some kind of flag, the sediments of the dirty air began to twist and shift in the same movement of the twirling sword, speed started to pick up, as the sediments began to form in a mighty tornado, the sediment tornado was black like the dust and ash it carried, Star felt her hair and clothes be pulled into the tornado, she stood her ground despite the deep insistence of being sucked into the black-scented vacuum, she screamed as she felt the wind slashing against her as slowly aimed her Wand at the Humble Knight.

 **"Submit My Queen..."** The Knight said with a growl, desperately wanting Star to give up on her will to fight, she didn't falter but she felt the wind was grabbing her, wanting to suck the Princess into the sinister twister.

"Shooting Sky Shot!" She yelled, her wand glowing a quick blue hue before it shot out a blue beam of energy at the Knight, its stream was littered with white glowing stars sort of looking akin to the blue night sky, Humility gasped in surprise as he was struck right dead center on his chest, causing the Knight to screech in pain as the tornado began to dissipate from the lack of channeling.

Humility growled under his breath as he clenched the now burning armor-less spot of his chest, it seemed to bleed a sticky purple ooze out of the new wound that the Knight of Humility received.

 **"Not bad, My Queen..."** The Strife-filled Humility knight said as Star looked more determined than ever, with a slow blink from the Humility Knight, he started to rush towards sword, his sword ready to slice the Princess into two.

 **"But not Good enough!"** The Knight roared loudly, Star stood his ground, she quickly dodged the sword slash from Humility, she stumbled on her ground as the sword clashed to the ground, shattering the earth and causing it to split apart like a massive tremor, Humility did a horizontal to which Star quickly hopped over noticing that one of the spires from afar was cleaved in two by the sheer force of Humility's sword, before blasting her wand right in the Knight's face!

"Flash Bang Cannon!" She said, almost acting like a camera flash, the Knight was disoriented from the magical attack, quickly shaking his head as it attempted to clear its vision.

"Time to finish you!" Star said aloud as she blasted the Knight one last time before he could even recover from her flare-blinding spell, the Knight shattered into pieces of crude metal and scrap, his sword disappearing in the same black sediment that Strife's dimension was plagued with.

 **"Well done...Star."** Strife suddenly said, returning back to his true armor, the formerly dormant and lifeless armor being brightened by newly-ignited flames within the ridges of the black suit of armor.

"Thank you Strife...That was...Pretty cool..." Star admitted as the Knight of Strife quietly walked up to her, before bowing to her, not in his usual way to display complete obedience, but in a way to imply that he respects Star, a bow of what a honor samurai would do when sparring against another.

 **"Despite your young age, you seem more, Battle-hardened in contrast to your past mothers and great ones."** The Knight of Strife pointed out as he folded his arms in a stern manner.

"I guess fighting monsters at a young age really made me who I am today." Star said to herself, feeling somewhat proud of her fighting skills, Strife only nodded in response, simply agreeing with the Princess.

 **"No matter what you try to be, you will always see yourself in the mirror."** Strife recited nonchalantly to the Princess as she looked around the desolate wasteland before speaking to the Knight.

"Can we go back to Earth? I feel really refreshed to be honest." Star said with a honest smile, the smile was genuine enough for the Knight to transport Star back to earth without a single word.

* * *

Meanwhile, while the Princess of Mewni and the Strife-born Knight of Humility were battling each other, Marco Diaz and Jackie-Lynn Thomas were spending time with each other, they just finished a movie, a scary movie actually, Marco sworn that he was going to get nightmares tonight, just like he did yesterday with that foreshadowing Knight.

It bothered Marco Diaz enough that he was being very apparent about it, enough for his girlfriend to notice.

"Is there something wrong Marco?" She said with a caring but chill tone, it caught Marco off-guard, not really wanting Jackie to worry about his personal struggle.

"Its nothing Jackie...Its nothing..." Marco said in a clearly unpersuasive tone, Jackie frowned in response, not being convinced in the slightest.

"You can tell me what's wrong, you know me, I won't judge you for it." She replied, giving her boyfriend a kind and crisp smile, Marco blushed in response but it made him a bit more comfortable explain whats bugging him.

"I don't know why I'm so Disgruntled Jackie...I had a really cryptic dream yesterday, but..." Marco paused, looking deep into Jackie's eyes for a single moment before he spoke once again.

"I shouldn't worry about you know? It's probably nothing anyway." Jackie smiled happily upon her boyfriend's words.

"Thats the spirit, by the way, how are you and Star?" Jackie asked suddenly, Marco didn't want to even think about Star Butterfly right now, simply wanting to focus more on his girlfriend than anything Star related.

"Eh, she's doing fine!" Marco lied, being obliviously on the conflict and intrapersonal pain that Star was currently going through.

 **"Strife will always come for you...And he will always get his way."** Macro heard in a cruel whisper.

Right before Marco could realize what was just said to him, the sky began to darken as it started to rain like a storm, Jackie and Marco both shouted in annoyance from the rain fall, instantly getting doused by the heavy shower of rain, Jackie groaned in annoyance as her perfectly good clothes were drenched in the water.

"Why the sudden rainfall!?" Jackie exclaimed sadly as Marco almost wordlessly offered his girlfriend his hoodie, she smiled as thanks as she quickly put it on, being protected from the rain by the hoodie.

"Thank Mar-" Before Jackie could finish her sentence, A metal and clawed hand grabbed a hold of Jackie's neck! She screamed in fear and shock, but nothing came out as her neck ceased her vocals as its grip was tighter than a wringer, Marco gasped to what he saw within the blasting downpour.

The Knight's Armor was sharp but massive, his shoulderguards looked like spiked maces, his boots looked like curved hooks, his helm looked like a battle axe head, his gauntlets looked like bladed claws, his chest looked like a targe shield, his tasset looked like a gallery of daggers and knifes, all in all, he looked like a living magic-induced golem made of various medieval weapons serving as various body parts for the Metal Monster.

All of this topped off, with a pair of White soulless eyes, the Knight laughed hysterically as Marco could only stare upon the Knight and his hand that was crushing the neck of Jackie-Lynn Thomas.

"LET HER GO!" Was all Marco said as he sprinted towards the Weapon Knight, the Knight only howled with laughter as he disappeared within the trickles of the rain fall, Marco screamed in pain as he slammed the rippling puddles beneath him that collected due to the rainstorm, Jackie-Lynn Thomas was gone.

* * *

Star plopped on her bed as felt fatigued, the adrenaline she had during her battle dwindling down into a stubble of what it was, she sighed in a content manner, as the Knight of Strife simply stood by her side silently, not saying a single word as he was still folding his arms, Star yawned loudly as she spoke to her personal Knight.

"So Strife, What do you like to do on your spare time?" Star asked, the question was strong enough for the Knight to noticeably flinch, he didn't how to properly answer such a question that Star asked, he was used to asking his Queens the same question, not the other way around.

 **"I...Prefer...Peace, and picking flowers."** The Knight responded awkwardly, the sheer honesty in his voice made the Princess of Mewni to giggle in amusement, a Dark Knight having a affinity for picking flowers and frolicking? It was comedic at best!

Some time later, Star Butterfly began to drift off into a sound slumber


	6. Chapter 6: The Shattered Half

**Star's Strife**

 **Chapter 6: The shattered half**

The OTHER love of Marco Diaz, Jackie-Lynn Thomas finally awoke from her unconscious-induced slumber, she groaned in pain as she felt her neck was heavily bruised, making the simple act of breathing a struggling act, she felt pained as her body was chained through tightened chains, choking her wrists and ankles as if they nailed on to her.

"W-Where am I?" She asked herself, the dimness of light did not elp for the Girl to know where she was now, she began to cry as the pain within and without of herself began to exaggerate as she cried streams of tears, she feared for her death as the chasm she was trapped in began to almost breathe in life, the metal chasm bellowing out several flute-like songs as the wind passed through the holes, despite the many holes, there was no light coming in, almost as if the shining light in the darkness was just a metaphor and not a literal fact.

 **"Don't not cry...Maiden..."** Jackie-Lynn Thomas heard, she hopelessly looked up to see a metal hand coming out of the shaded shadows, caressing her cheek like a mother would do to her own child.

 **"Your Death...Will supplement the happiness of many others..."** The Knight said with a howl of laughter, coming out of his shadows to reveal his weapon-inspired armor and his Giant size, towering over the mundane human girl like an ant to an Hercules beetle, Jackie began to cry like a little baby, her cool demeanor melting into a shaking mess like an ice cube in a deep fryer.

"Please don't kill me! PLEASE!" She begged, the Knight only laughed once more, quickly ripping out a knife from his blade-ridden tasset, he hummed a melodious tone through his axe-headed helm, the humming being similar to the flute-spouts of the metal spire.

 **"The needs of the strongest is more important than the needs of the weak."** The Knight of Weaponry recited as he giggled delightfully to himself, clearly wanting to enjoy every single waking moment with Marco's girlfriend.

 **"You are weak and your status is low...My Strength is great, so I will make you Reap what you Sow."** The Knight began to recite, as if he was some crazed sage who could speak in metaphors and edicts.

 **"I am a Knight of Victory, a Knight of Success, and it seems to achieve this meaning, I must end your life...I'm sorry for causing harm to such a maiden, but its not my fault..."** The Knight said as he laughed once again, taking great enjoyment with his musing in Jackie's desperation.

 **"I'm sorry for saying this...But I'm going to GREATLY enjoy this."** The Knight as he caressed her cheek once again before he showed the reflection of herself in the blade of his many knifes.

 **"Please don't cry, just this once, my hunger grows and must be sated, I'm sorry..."** The Callous Knight repeated, almost as if he was mocking the innocent girl with fake regret as his constant and repeating apologies, it was like sour notes, sure it was the crescendo, but it was a verse that caused more pain than tranquil.

Jackie Screamed once again, at the top of her lungs, no one heard her, and nobody came as the Knight of Weaponry started to use his knife on her, the last thing that Jackie could visibly see was the white soulless eyes of the Knight.

* * *

"Star! Star! Please open up!" Marco begged loudly as he banged on the door in a fit of shock and anxiety, Star almost instinctively opened her door, having a great look of worry on her face.

"What's wrong Marco?" Was all Star said as Marco barged into Star's room, his emotions taking over him, The Knight of Strife silently disappeared before Marco could even get a good look on him in a puff of red and black smoke.

"Jackie's gone! She got kidnapped! and I don't know what to do!" Marco wailed as he began to cry, Star felt a slight hint of joy from the fact that Jackie-Lynn was kidnapped, but the thought quickly went away when he simply watched the now devastated Marco crying his heart out, she felt immense guilt from the sight of his depression.

"Marco...We're going to rescue her, just like Glossaryck...Who kidnapped her? Was it Ludo or someone we know?" Star asked, trying to stay cool and calm despite the sight of her love crying out from the loss of his temporary girlfriend.

"I have no idea! He was just a metal knight who kidnapped out of the bloom! We were just walking out of the movie theater until a rainstorm came up and then some giant metal monster took her!" Marco wallowed as he desperately tried to control himself but to no avail, clearly damaged from such a traumatic event, Star, with a slow and careful but caring motion, she embraced her lover, Marco was at first stunned from such a action of the Princess, but nevertheless accepted it with a full heart.

Marco hugged his friend back as his tears stained her mint green dress, Star didn't mind at all from the stains.

"Don't worry Marco, we're going to rescue her, I promise." She said, pulling away so she can allow Marco to see her smile, it was enough to give her lover a sense of genuine hope, genuine enough hope to smile back at her and even trust her words without a grain of salt.

"...You're right Star...Thank you..." Marco said, Star could feel a heavy sense of warmth inside her, she desperately wanted to kiss him and smother him with her festering love, but decided against him, not until Marco was truly hers and hers only.

"I don't know where we can find her...But maybe with some magic..." Star twirled her wand a little bit before she continued speaking.

"We can rescue her in no time..." Marco smiled upon hearing Star's, Marco forced the hug this time, causing Star to blush more hotter than Strife's blazing fire.

"Thank you...Star...Thank you..." He repeated, crying tears of joy this time, Star could only smile in return, not speaking a single word to her lover.

Before the two could break off of the hug, a twisted portal opened up within Star's bed room, it screamed in pain as it opened up, its black and ashy-red trails twirling like a whirlpool as it opened the portal to the other world, showcasing a world, the world of Strife's dimension, his home of knights that served the Queens of the Wand bearers.

'...Strife...Did you made this kidnapping?' Star mentally questioned herself, knowing that the portal led to Strife's home world.

"...See? What did I tell you, with a little magic, we can find her." Star said, trying to raise Marco's spirits up with a small smile on her face, it failed as he looked more dour than ever, without another word, the boy step forth into the portal before Star could even move a muscle, she looked upon Marco as he entered into the portal with a face of pure defined determination, more willing than ever to rescue his girlfriend from the evil but unknown assailant.

 **'I...Didn't orchestrated this kidnapping Star Butterfly...I would never do that...'** Strife answered coolly, almost as if he was in Star's head, the first initial thought was deep confusion, if Star was a betting, she would've believed that this was Strife's doing, a dirty trick so that Marco could see Jackie's faults and realize how good he is if he just paired up with his one true love.

"But it doesn't make any sense! Jackie is kidnapped, then while Marco came to me, this portal that leads to your home dimension suddenly opens up! I thought you were pulling some strings Strife." Star began to argue with the Knight of Strife, Strife was quick to Retort to his queen, desiring to rest his case with some more reciting.

 **"We knights would never do such harsh things for the sake of our Queen's happiness...Our honor is great and our strength is the same."**

 **"A Knight, no matter what flag we follow, no matter what standard bear, no matter who we bow down to, we will never harm a woman."** Strife appeared with a gale of black and red smoke, his weapons unsheathed and ready to battle, Star's eyes widened quickly as she sprinted into the portal.

"We need to go help Marco then, we don't know what we're dealing with then!" Star said as she jumped into the portal in a hasty manner, Strife tilted his helmed head slightly before walking into the portal, noticing how the portal lead to his realm, it confused the Knight, not really knowing what was happening exactly.

* * *

 **Two Days ago, the same day when Strife formed...**

Ludo looked upon the new minion with a curious curved eyebrow, the Knight kneel down to his King, his growl was audible as it waited for the permission to speak.

"Why are you in my presence you tin can!?" Ludo said, his patience finally bringing to an end to the growling but wordless Knight, The Knight finally stoop up, his suit of weapon-ridden armor scraping and grinding against each other like whetstones to dull blades.

 **"I have served many bearers of the Royal Magic Wand, from Queen to Princess to Queen..."** The Knight finally began to spoke, but suddenly, a small giggle escaped through his words, instantly gathering Ludo's attention.

"Wait wait...What do you mean? I have the other half of the magic wand! It wasn't passed down to me!" Ludo said in objection.

 **"But it seems like, I will serve a King now, and I will serve him until the pain inside of you is gone!"** The little creature of evil eye's began to gleam with the thoughts of potential destruction due to having this Knight being loyal to him.

"In that case Minion...What is your name?" Ludo beckoned, when the Knight of weaponry finally stopped laughing, he spoke in a quiet and chilling tone.

 **"I go by many names...But for now, I am called..."**

 **"Victory."**


	7. Chapter 7: Victory Or Death!

**Star's Strife**

 **Chapter 7: Victory...Or Death!**

The laughter of the Knight of Glorious Victory was ear-bleeding and heart-wrenching for our mundane Human Hero, the Knight of Victory laughed even more as he walked out of his respective spire, his weapon body scraping against each other more fearsome than ever, the blades, the spikes, the axe heads, the dagger blades, the razor-knuckles, all of them grinded against each other, causing a plethora of sparks to scream out of Victory's armor.

"What have you done...To my Jackie!?" Marco demanded from the joyous and laughing Victorious Knight, the Knight didn't bother to answer with words, only with visuals and action he did so, showing Marco a knife that he was holding in his hands, it was stained with small figments and pigments of blood.

 **"Like I said boy...Strife will always come for you...And Strife will always get his way."** He said before laughing once again, twirling his blood-letted knight like some kind of child's plaything, his axe head helm barely even keeping the sound of his laughter from being any more irritating and hate-able.

Marco, without another word, nor a second thought screamed with all of his might, charging towards the Victory Knight with his arms raised, his determination, his anger, his desire for a new-found vengeance increasing a thousand fold, wanting to destroy the weapon Knight for the sake of avenging his love.

The Knight of Victory was appalled from Marco's anger, not really understanding why the boy would be so angry at him for causing such a pain to him, he knew for a fact that Marco's heart was not in the wrong place.

 **"So be it...Boy."** The Knight of Victory said, his tone being from happy and playful, to serious and bloodthirsty, he stretched his arms out, the metal clunking and screaming with pain and sparks as they were moved, he beckoned Marco to come forward, fully insisting on fighting back.

 **"Similar to my brothers and the past lives before me...I will teach you, the fact...That you will never be victorious."** Victory said with a chilling tone, Marco ignored the Knight's words, his emotions taking over him, his eyes started to well up in tears of a mixture of emotions, hate, anger, frustration, loss, grief, pain, despite this, it was all the same for the Knight of Victory.

Marco roared in rage as he prepared to fight the Knight of Victorious, it was a hopeless, Marco had spirit and audacity, but he's up against a living, breathing chassis monster of pure weaponry, his blades are sharp, his steel is broad, and his sense of mercy was non-existent, it simply only meant one thing, the end of Marco Diaz.

Victory raised his Knife high in the air, preparing the stab the thick but short blade right into Marco's Skull as the boy hopelessly punched and kicked against the Knight's spiky chest, Victory had to pause and laugh in enjoyment from Marco's fruitless Struggles, it was like a mouse trying to escaping from a spring trap, their determination to escape is admirable, but overall, a waste of breath.

 **"Die boy."** The Knight said as he slammed his serrated knife down.

There was no blood, no scream, no new corpse, for the Princess of Mewni and the Loyal Knight of Strife came to the rescue, with a black heater shield, Strife blocked Victory's knife, the blade shattering upon impact and causing Victory to scream in agony, the loss of his knife almost being akin to breaking a bone, before Victorious could even react to the Steadfast defense of Strife, he was blasted away by a magical attack from Star, landing on his back and causing his weapons to be tinted with sand and dirt.

The Attack was strong, but it wasn't enough to cause any apparent damage to the Knight of Victorious, he began to laugh in enjoyment once more before quickly getting up from the ground.

 **"...Got another one in you?"** He replied, with a snarky and annoying tone, scraping off some dirt from his axe-head helm.

Marco's first reaction to the save, was to look at his defender, instantly recognizing the Knight of Strife from his dream, he lashed out at the Knight with a tone stricken with venom and hate.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" He roared at the silent Strife Knight, Star was confused from such a prospect, not understanding Marco's words, Strife only scoffed in response.

 **"Focus on the battle, Marco Diaz."** He responded, he weld his weapon with both of his hands, the weapon was like a cudgel, big and thick, but instead of hardened wood, it was made of the thickest iron available, it had a brutal hook on one end and was serrated on the other hand, it could both smash bone and cleave flesh with a single swing, a perfect instrument for destruction for the Knight of Strife.

"STAR! THIS THING IS THE REASON WHY THIS HAPPENED! WHY JACKIE IS DEAD!" Marco said with a unrestrained fury, Star was dead silent as Strife only glanced at her, Star could feel the regret and guilt within the Knight, but it was almost as if Strife didn't know what was happening either, within his fiery visor, Star could sense his confusion, his turmoil, it was almost as strong as the turmoil inside her.

 **"Allow me to add some more...Fuel to the fire..."** Victory said deviously, clearly taking fun within Marco's unreasonable anger and overwhelmed state of emotion.

 **"...I am Victory...King Ludo has never learned the concept of victory...His repeated failures piled onto him like stone to walls."** Victory Explained as he pulled nonchalantly pulled out two knifes from his tasset, within a moment's notice, they grew back like flowers sprouting of the earth, turning from simple hilts to full-on bladed knifes.

 **"We Knights are tied to the Wand...For the first time in our line of Knights...There was two owners, that means...Two Knights."** Victory showed his two knifes to the trio as if he was some sort of professor making a visual example.

 **"Strife is connected to Star...Mirroring her inner conflict inside of her...And I represent the desire for Victory within my King, Ludo."**

 **"...How do you know all of this?"** Strife asked, he sounded defeated, tormented and guilty, the Kngiht of Victory chuckled from the question before answering nonchalantly.

 **"Simple...I am the eyes...The Ears...The Brains...You're the Brawn, its why you're struggling with helping your Princess with her pain."** Victory laughed as Marco glared daggers at Star who was still silent.

 **"Knights of the Wand are supposed to do whatever it takes to make the STRIFE within our Queens and Princesses gone, if it means spilling a little blood...Then so be it!"** Marco simply stared at his friend, his faced shift from a angered-fueled glare to a look of downright betrayal, he looked like whatever inside of him was completely shattered, the personal image of Star being tainted and warped.

 **"To put it simply Strife, you are my other half..."**

There was a silence between the four, beside the quiet giggles that Victory was emitting, Marco dropped to his knees, completely defeated, his skin looked pale and the life in his eyes started to vanish, he looked downright decayed, all of the emotional damage has finally broke him, he simply stared at the black-cloud sky, not even speaking a word.

"...Marco..." Star said, she was crying the whole time as Victory spoke, she dropped her wand on the sand, not even caring about protecting herself as she quickly sprinted towards Marco, quickly embracing him as she began to sob loudly, Strife stood still like a statue, completely catatonic from the new information, this whole ordeal, this whole kidnapping, was all his fault.

He could feel Star, she was worse than she was before, even more so than she was originally was, her heart beated slower than before, all in the while Victory laughed and laughed.

 **"She died Screaming by the way."** He cackled, Marco and Star didn't even respond to the Knight's words, willing to accept their demise any time now.

...

 **"ENOUGH!"** Strife roared, the first ever time he raised his voice against anyone, with a beast-like roar, the Knight of Strife slammed his brutal weapon against Victory's Mace-like Shoulderpad, with a scream of agony from Victory, his shoulder pad shattered, revealing the black but diseased and bony flesh that the Knight of Victory had to work with.

 **"ENOUGH!"** Strife repeated as he swung his weapon again, this time, Victory was ready, he dodge Strife's attack, before quickly thrusting his two knifes right in Strife's flesh, Strife ignored his new wounds as he kneed Victory in the chest, his spiky targe-shield chest breaking and shattering into pieces of wood and steel, Victory screeched like a imp, quickly plucking more knifes out of his tasset and stabbing them into Strife's chest.

 **"ENOUGH!"** Strife Repeated once again, roaring like some dragon as he blocked a bladed-hand slash from Victory, the Knight's long bladed fingers breaking like nails as they collided with Strife's shield, before Victory could even retaliate to the new wound, his now, armor-less chest was bashed by the hilt of Strife's weapon, causing a strange purplish blood to leak out of the body of the Victorious Knight.

As the two Knights battled each other, Star was still crying her poor heart out as the now emotionally drained Marco was still on his knees, staring at the ceiling in a brutal depression.

"I'm sorry..." Was all Star said, to her, it felt like she was the only thing could say, if she said anything else, she knew that Marco will condemn her, if he didn't already, taking all of the blame for herself, Marco finally stopped staring at the oil-like sky, he didn't glare at Star, he didn't gave her a dead-like expression, in fact, he was crying to once he saw Star's face.

Her heart-cheeks, were cracked and leaked, her eyes, were drowning in tears, her general happiness, evaporated, only replaced by the guilt, the regret, Marco finally realized the deep struggles within his friend.

Without another word, Marco finally hugged back to Star, surprising the girl as it gave her hope, hope that Marco doesn't hate her for all the problems and strife he gave him.

'...Strife...' Star realized, looking upon the fighting Knight.

 **"ENOUGH!"** The Knight of Strife roared again, cleanly dominating the fight between his other half as he pushed Victory away, pulling out the four knifes that were lunged in his chest, he growled in annoyance, treating his stab wounds as if they were simple thorns, they dropped to the ground like pin needles, rusting and decaying as they reappeared on Victory's tasset, the Knight of Victory laughed under his breath as his broken pieces of armor regrew back, his shoulderpad reinstalling along with his targe chestplate.

 **"...Are you done?"** Victory asked in a mocking manner, pulling out more knifes from his tasset, looking as if he was completely healed up, the wounds he received during the duel looking like they never happened.

 **"I never will be..."** Strife replied, in contrast to Victory, his stab wounds were still opened and bleeding profusely, despite this, the Knight looked more invigorated than ever.

 **"...Star...Marco...Find Jackie...If we're part of one...Then that means our honor remains sacred..."** Strife commanded from the two, they didn't respond but they listened to the Knight.

 **"I will fend off Victory...Go through every spire you can find."** Strife said with heavy breaths.

"But Strife..." Star began but he roared before Star could finish, insisting that they should leave the Knight of Strife behind.

The Princess of Mewni and her love ran off, Star picking up Marco for he still seemed to drained to even be running, not believing Strife's words, that they would find Jackie intact and alive.

 **"Yes yes go children...The Adults have to talk."** Victory said with a chuckle, with a nonchalant motion, the Knight of Victory pulled out a blade out of his back, almost as if was sheathed and holstered on his back side the whole entire time, the blade was long, balanced, but powerful, looking like it was made of a stone-like metal, the sediment of the air began to slow down as the two knights stood across from each other, the wind blowing was the only audible sound between the Knight of Victory and the Knight of Strife.

It was bone-chilling for both Knights, technically they were fighting against each other with the same goal in mind: To help their owner, to help their Queen/King, to make them happy, if it means going against each other in a fight, then so be it.

Victory, despite his callous and wicked first impression, despite taunting Marco and Star that he brutally murdered Jackie-lynn Thomas, despite all of his devilishness, was the first to bow, almost as if he was like a honorable warrior, a warrior of virtue and chivalry, despite utilizing one of the most sinister but subtle killing machines, the knife, Strife growled under his breath but he bowed back, the two Knights couldn't be anymore different, but they were at the least on the same page of Honor.

It started to rain, the first time since forever, it rained, the water was clear and clean, in contrast to the dirty sky and disgusting sediment, flames started to ignite around the pair of Knights, almost as if the dry sand was ignited by the energy that water can bring to living things.

A full of minute of silence was between the two, when that minute passed, the two Knights clashed with each other, the earth shook, the fires raged like a brutal inferno, the rain started to storm as the clouds roared out thunder and breathed out lightning.


	8. Chapter 8: Victory's Victory

**Star's Strife**

 **Chapter 8: Victory's Victory**

Star blasted through the first spire that was closest to herself and her progressively catatonic lover, his eyes were emotionless as they scanned through the Spire, it was completely empty, except for the dormant armor that was no doubt one of many Strife's previous lives.

"Come on Marco! We might have a chance that she's still alive!" Star tried to beckon Marco as he struggled to even pick his feet as our two heroes scrambled towards to the next closest spire, Star once again blew a hole in the wall of the spire, being another hole-filled room, with the exclusion of the lifeless suit of ornate and grandiose armor that was pinned to the inner sanctum of the wall.

"Its hopeless Star...Jackie is probably already dead anyway..." Marco lamented as he started to cry his heart out but in a silent manner, to drained to even lash out in grief, Star could feel her heart be beaten by a guilt-laced cudgel, she grabbed Marco's hand and clenched it tightly.

"Don't ever say that Marco...Don't give up." Star tried to raise the spirits of Marco, there was fruit for her labor as he seemed just as hopeless as he was before she even spoke anything.

Frustrated with the boy's catatonic state, she held his hand tighter than ever before, It was tight enough for the broken Marco to lock eyes on his friend, she was crying as well, not tears of loss,but of self-loathing, of guilt and regret, she held on to him almost as if they were a chain link, they seemed inseparable as they continued on their near-hopeless on searching for the most-likely murdered Jackie, Star had to drag his Love for he wasn't keeping up with her pace.

'Don't give up Star...' The Princess of Mewni repeated and repeated in her head, she turned her head to slightly to see the Knights of the Wand standing off against each other, the world tearing apart and splitting away from where they were fighting, despite the cataclysm that they created through their fight, it was only in a small and controlled area around them, not at all harming the Princess and her love.

 **"You're strong...Other half..."** The Knight of Victory said with a laugh as the clouds rained down on them, their blood dripping off of their armor and flesh as the rain water washed it away, the earth around them has shattered and eroded, the fires raged on and pulsed like a wardrum as they surrounded the two knights.

 **"Shut your mouth...Whelp."** Strife retorted back, his armor was cracked and starting to look weary and umkempt, but the Knight of Victory looked more ready than ever despite his battle wounds, his weapon armor covering the wounds he acquire from Strife's strikes, the Knight of Strife fiery visor blazed brighter than before, looking akin to a lantern in the rain storm.

 **"Tell me...Did you really kill her?"** Strife asked desperately, this got Victory to giggle hysterically like some crazed serial killer, without a beat, the Knight of Victory nodded in return.

 **"Like I said before, she died Screaming! And now, its your turn to do the same!"** Victory said before commencing another roaring charge, his black master-craft longsword overhead and ready to cleave either the Knight of Strife or the Earth beneath, Strife roared back, blocking the Sword with his shield, his black metal buckler cracking once again as it struggling to take the hits of Victory's sword, the earth underneath Strife's feet shook and trembled as the two weapons collided with each other.

Before Strife could Retaliate with any form of offensive strike, his chest was once again stabbed with one of Victory's many knifes, despite the many wounds he was receiving, his will didn't waver, his strength didn't falter.

Knowing that he could score a clean hit with his sword, Strife punched Victory right into his targe shield-chestplate, shattering it completely and causing Victory to screech in agony, the metal spikes of Strife's gauntlets slicing into Victory's exposed black-tinted flesh.

They both backed away, Strife pulled the knife out of his chest as Victory's chestplate began to repair itself, they both growled at each other like two alpha animals, they both silently stared at each other, despite their many efforts, they seemed more evenly matched than anything else.

Without a second deep thought, The Knight of Strife threw his shield at the Knight of Victory like some kind of throwing axe, pieces of his armor shattered upon impact with Strife's shield, not willing to dodge the shield and instead letting himself take the damage and self-repair his armor.

 **"Thanks for the shield Strife..."** Victory said in a mocking manner before equipping the shield for himself, Strife ignored Victory's words, wielding his brutal sword with more agility and more nimbleness than ever due to not having to slog a shield around with his attacks.

 **"Enough of this..."** Strife said calmly, removing his large shoulder pads, ripping them apart from his body as if they were leeches to his black-tinted skin, he began to rip out other pieces of his armor, removing his black-clothed tasset, his spiked gauntlets and his flesh-rending shin-guards the thick but cumbersome armor pieces dropped to the ground, cracking the ground underneath it due to its shear weight they possessed.

 **"Enough of this...Armor, I don't have to protect, for I know that Star can protect herself from Scum like you..."** Strife repeated with a monstrous growl as Victory stared at his other half with some form of curious confusion.

 **"Enough of this...If I'm going to perish, I'm going to perish with you alongside me."** Strife recited as he roared out an aggressive battlecry, his helm shook and shattered completely from the shear volume of his battle fury, his face was nothing but a blazing flame with a pair of ruby-red eyes, as the shards of his helm drifted off and joined in with the sediment and ash-filled air, his face burned like a light in the darkness as the rain storm was getting heavier and heavier every passing moment.

Strife looked smaller than he did before without the unnecessary armor pieces he wore, most of his black, almost shadow-like flesh and skin was revealed as he flexed his now-uncased muscles, more ready than ever before to defeat his other half.

 **"You done undressing?"** Victory asked in a unimpressed tone, Strife held his sword with two hands, his movement with the blade being a lot more quicker and a lot more potent with its ability to slew his enemies.

Strife Swung charged forward with a new-found frightening speed, his now discarded armor seemed to limit this unknown speed, with two hands, Strife unleashed a massively wide horizontal slash, hoping to slice the Knight of Victory in two, Victory laughed hysterically as he blocked the attack with his newly-obtained shield, only for the shield to shatter completely.

 **"WHAT?!"** Victory shouted in shock from Strife's ineffectiveness of blocking Strife's attack, his shield was able to protect Strife from most of still continued on his leeway, slicing through Victory's chest piece and cutting the Victorious Knight's stomach, the Victorious knight screamed in agony, without enough time to even fight back, Strife punched Victorious right into the side of his axe face, the axe head of Victory shattered from the strike, Victory screeched again in pain as he finally retaliated, grabbing a handful of knifes from his tasset.

Strife quickly jumped back as Victory attempted to stab Strife with a fistful of knifes, he screamed in pain as his axe head helm and chestplate repaired themselves, his wounds starting to pile up against each other, despite the many wounds, both Knights were still standing and still valiant with their battle

 **"You little...Piece of Trash..."** Victory insulted, clearly furious from Strife's new found power in speed in strength, Strife was now silent as his shattered helm heated brightly against the wild head flame of Strife.

 **"You just signed your Obituary..."** Victory taunted before his shoulder armor was smashed in pieces by the blunt and heavy side of Strife's sword, Victory screeched again in pain as pieces and shards of his shoulder armor were now in his flesh, adding more pain and injury to Strife's

 **"You sick...FUCK!"** Victory wailed in agony as he gripped his shoulder, the shards and bits of the shattered armor piercing and sticking into his shoulder like thorns, Suddenly, Strife, in a tranquil fury proceeded to grab ahold of Victory's free hand, Victory yelped in surprise from the sudden action and before he could even react, he was lifted up in the air.

 **"HOW ARE YOU THIS STRONG?!"** Victory lamented loudly as he was slammed into the ground with Strife's throw, creating a deep hole that was several feet, with a now losing Victory Knight at the bottom of the hole.

 **"How are you...This strong..."** Victory repeated in a confused and muddled manner, clearly not understanding why Strife was overpowering him despite the extremely fair fight between them before he removed his heavy armor pieces.

"This doesn't make any sense...I should be stronger than you...Ludo's desire for Victory, is greater than Star's conflict..." Victory said in defense as the flame of Strife's face began to charged up for an attack, it started to shine brightly like a miniature sun as the rain fall started to evaporate from the pure concentrated fireball that Strife was channeling.

Victory groggily regained his senses from such a slam, seeing a bright orb within the darkened skies as the Knight was quick to question the sudden increase of heat and light.

 **"…Now I see a bright light…A big…Bright light…"** Before Victory could run his mouth some more, Strife finally spoke, his voice was stricken with rage, anguish and hate, yelling out this single line that spelled out both ferocity and wittiness.

 **"WALK TOWARDS IT!"** Strife unleashed the attack, channeling out a beam of concentrated heat energy, right into the chasm that Victory was laying in, Victory screamed in fear and terror as the attack made an explosion occur, a flash of white, red and black, the force of the explosion was strong enough to knock Strife off of his feet and making him land straight on his back several feet away.

The Explosion was strong enough to cause several nearby spires to crumble to the ground, revealing several dormant armor suits of Strife's previous lifes

The Explosion was strong enough to knock Marco and Star off of their feet despite being nowhere near the battle.

The dust and smoke settled, Strife silently got to his feet, feeling heavily fatigued from using such an attack, it was reminiscent of the magical attacks of his queens, powerful, but controlled, deadly and destructive, but only for a good cause.

Strife couldn't stand up any longer, he dropped to one knee as he huffed loudly, planting his weapon on the ground as an attempt to uphold himself from dropping to the ground, Strife stared at the ruined earth in front of him, the desecrated earth, looking as if the world was in a brutal state of cataclysm, no life, no clean, flat land, just chaos, anarchy.

There was no sign of Victory, perhaps…He was defeated…Strife couldn't help but scoff to himself, as the rain fall ceased and the cool and lonely wind was able to be heard/

 **"Your name was Victory…Yet, you perish in failure…"** Strife mused to himself as he covered his chest wounds with one of his hands, growling to himself as he felt more blood trickling down.

 **"You said that you were the knowledge to my strength…Yet you forget, our power, is determined through our bond with the Bearers of the Wand…I'm from a long line of bonds, connections, and Friendships, I taught Celena Humility…I taught Solaria the Kindness of Mercy, I taught Moon that doubt is the cornerstone for progress…I taught Eclipsa…About individuality…And I still have yet taught Star about her internal conflict…"** Strife paused before finishing his recital.

 **"What chance had you? A pale imitation of our Long line of Knights?"** He concluded as he decided to have some rest on the spot.

 **"I will never surrender, I will never die...Not until the pain within Star has subsided, not until her personal turmoil is gone."**

* * *

"Jackie!" Marco exclaimed as both he and Star finally found her, she was completely covered in her blood, she was still chained up but the our two heroes doubt she'll move, her eyes were closed shut as her body was littered with small little but painful cuts, each cut was laced with salt to maximize the pain she would receive in her motal-wounding torture.

Marco could only cry when he saw her, Star was dead silent as she blasted away her chains, allowing Marco to properly mourn his loss, she plopped to the ground but Marco was swift enough to catch her from hitting the floor.

"Jackie…" Marco said before he began to cry once again, Star finally started to cry as well, her guilt and regret began to grow tenfold as she witnessed her lover caressing the blood-lettered face of Jackie-Lynn Thomas, the hatred towards herself was apparent, without another word, Star attempted to walk away from the spire of where Jackie was imprisoned, allowing Marco to cry in a lone peace.

That was until…Someone, with a damaged voice, coughed, her little gasket of air was light, fragile and weak, but it was a clear sign for one thing however…Life, Marco wails finally stopped as he stared right into Jackie's now opened eyes, they were dulled but not lifeless, fading, but not completely endeavored.

Marco's love for Jackie-lynn Thomas, was reignited for her once he saw her eyes slowly opening up, without a second thought, Marco kissed his love, all in the while Star watched from afar, silently crying her poor poor heart out.


	9. Chapter 9: Going back home

**Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait, I was contemplating over what I was going to do next, considering that I write on the fly with these, I was sort of having a deep writers block on what to go next, luckily, I was able to get an idea, So I hope you guys can enjoy :D**

 **Star's Strife**

 **Chapter 9: Going back home**

The distance between Star and her love great twelves sizes that single day, its been a full week ever since Strife's evil half, Victory kidnapped and brutally tortured Marco's temporary girlfriend, Jackie-Lynn Thomas, to everyone's surprise, she was still alive and she was recovering rather miraculously, despite Victory's callous and cruel nature, it simply wasn't enough for the Knight to forsake his code of Knightly Honor and butcher a innocent maiden, or at least this is what Strife thinks.

Star sighed deeply as she was given a tray of breakfast foods as she slumped on her bed, Strife once again fed her breakfast, it was the same gesture throughout the whole week from Strife, a silent sign of desiring forgiveness for the reason why this whole ordeal even happened was due to the fact that his spirit lies within the wand.

Granted...Neither did the Wand Bearer nor the Knight of the Wand knew that splitting the wand into pieces also meant splitting the spirit of the Knight into two different lessons and knights entirely, it was a strange enigma in the anarchy of oddities that the royal magic wand possessed.

The two Mewmans were silent for the whole week, keeping in contact with anyone may it be Star's love or his supportive parents or her friends to a minimum, Star looked down on her well-made breakfast, not really understanding why she was even given something to eat to begin with.

With a deep Sigh, the princess began to eat, not eat for the sake of the taste or enjoyment out of it, but rather, eating it just for subsistence, chewing quietly as she gulped down the fluffy pancakes, her emotionless state not even changing in the slightest as she didn't seem to taste anything at all.

Strife was more silent than usual, back into his normal suit of armor, he was so still and stagnant that his armor didn't creak or squirm, almost like a stone statue, petrified and frozen.

"...Strife..." Star suddenly beckoned, the Knight finally made a move, walking slowly to the distressed Star Butterfly, she handed the Knight her tray of unfinished foodstuffs, almost as if she was rejecting a heart-felt gift.

"Thank you..." Star replied when Strife discarded the food by inserting the whole tray into his fiery visor, the pancakes and the plastic tray, burning and melting to a crisp within seconds.

 **"You are welcome...Star."** Strife responded, his voice being more dull and toneless than before, his stoic nature becoming more prominent.

Star sighed once again as she began to hear a commotion downstairs, she didn't bother to even predict what was happening, she lied on her bed as the Princess emotionlessly stared at the ceiling of her magically-created room.

A full minute of silence passed between the two, that was until a portal opened, Star didn't even bat an eye, not even caring who was going to come out of the Portal, she didn't care if it was a kidnapper, assassin, or anyone really.

"Star! Get up!" It was her mother that came out of the portal, she was wearing a regal-looking suit of armor, something that a lady of war would wear into battle, despite this however, it was rugged and tattered, losing its shimmer and shine due to the battle it had to participate in.

"...Mom?" Star said with some sort of dulled confusion, turning her head slightly and being genuinely surprised to see her Mother come out of the portal, with a fatigued gait, Star's mother tried to get her daughter up and ready.

"We need to leave back to Mewni right now!" She said as she was able to make Star stand up, before the Mother of the Princess could speak some more, she quickly noticed that the Knight of Strife hat was completely silent and still, Star's mother looked into Strife's Visor, her attention now on the Knight of Strife.

 **"Moon..."** Strife said suddenly, Star's mother was silent, gripping her hand on the warm metal visor, being heated by the blazing furnace that was inside of the Knight of Strife.

"Can't believe Star would need someone like you..." Moon suddenly said, her voice was surprised and a little bit shocked to see the Knight of Strife, not really understanding, why would her dearest daughter would need one of the Knights of the Wand to help her with her internal problems? She was Star Butterfly, a happy-go-lucky girl who had flaws of course, but it was flaws that Star knew and accepted with gusto, rather than denying them.

"What is your name, Knight of the wand?" She asked the Knight, with some hesitation, the Knight spoke.

 **"I am now called Strife...Moon."** Strife said, Moon paused for a moment, before she quickly to see her emotionally drained daughter, with a pitiful frown, Star's mother slowly walked up to her Daughter and placed a hand on her head as the princess resumed lying on her bed, The Queen of mewni stroked her daughter's hair with a careful and soothing hand.

"We need to go back to Mewni Star, we're both in great danger." Moon said, Star didn't respond as naturally as she usually do, she didn't protest, she didn't argue, she didn't even shook her head in defiance, she was actually, obedient, simply obeying her mother as she stood up and getting out of her bed.

 **"How is Star in great danger?"** It was Strife that questioned, despite being a living suit of armor and a physical moral lesson, the Knight of Strife was showing more emotion than Star.

"Because, Toffee has returned...And he's not alone..." Queen Moon forewarned.

* * *

 **In a Earlier time**

"Toffee..." Queen Moon Butterfly said as she and the magical high commission stared at the now levitating Ludo, the eyes of the little green creature began to white out like a soulless husk, being replaced by the reptilian eyes of the formerly-dormant Lizard monster.

"Hello...Everyone..." Toffee said as he using Ludo's body as a vessel, the cleaved wand began to shift and morph, growing flesh as it bonded and combined with the Little Green creature, becoming one with Toffee.

"What is happening?!" Rhomolous said as he noticed that small pieces of stone and rock began to roll into a single pile, almost as if they have a will of their own, the pebbles, the cracks, the drudged pieces of stone began to mold and forge together, forming into a long and ram-shackle pillar of stone, the Magical High Commission and Queen Butterfly now had to deal with two dangerous beings.

The Knight exploded out of the cobbled stone pillar with a fierce dragon-like roar, a eerie took place as the Knight began to stretch its new body, the metal armor sparked against each other as the Knight grinded its two wrist-blades together like a kitchen knife to a whetstone, the Knight's muscular but bleeding flesh was red like crimson, his gaze was red like rubies, his armor was not armor at all, it was not forged by the sanctity to protect, it was not forged to save people, it was forged, bent and shackled together for the sake of causing as much harm as possible.

Brutal spikes protruding out of any form of stripped metal plates of the armor coupled with axe-headed wrist-blades, with the finishing touches of a hefty but intimidating trophy rack nailed and drilled into the Knight Beasts back, with three poles

"Oh its rather simple..." Toffee said with a wicked smile on his face as the Knight brandish something peculiar in the long line of knights, his weapon was not like a sword, but instead, it was one of the earliest tools and weapons ever created, the axe, with serrated ridges and a hammer-like back end, it was akin to Strife's weapon in terms of effectiveness and purpose, to both crush bone and cleave flesh without the need of a sword and cudgel.

"I would like to get my finger back from Star Butterfly!" Toffee shouted as his wand-infused hand began to charge up in power.

 **"For...We desire...Vengeance!"** The Knight roared with beast-like vigor, his voice being crooked, crackling and deep, sounding like a dying animal that's holding on to its laugh breath as the knight readied its weapon against the magic users.


	10. Chapter 10: Marco's Guilt

**Star's Strife**

 **Chapter 10: Marco's Guilt**

Vengeance was silent as cold stone as he stood in front of his master Toffee, his axe in hand and ready to spill any form of blood, Vengeance's will was like the iron metal was nailed and bolted to, unrelenting and unbending to the magical high comission,

"Vengeance...Deal with the Magical High Commission, I'm going to deal with some personal matters..." Toffee said with a subdued cackle as he started to channel a strange surge of fel green energy, Vengeance roared in defiance but nevertheless agreed to his Master's command, He bellowed a massive ear-wrenching roar, saliva and mouth blood bursting out of the false Knight's razor-ridden maw.

He sounded like some sort of Leviathan, a brutal dragon that only seemed to be always in a state of madness, only yearning one thing in its own life...Destruction.

 **"Hahahaha...The spilling of your blood will be the first of my many glories!"** Vengeance taunted ferociously as he stood in front of his master, serving as the first defense for the Magical High Commission.

 **"For I am Vengeance! The Executioner of remorse! The Liberator of Evisceration! And the Reaver of anticipation!"** The Knight known as Vengeance daunted with a sharp-tooth ridden smile within his dark chasm of a face.

"Everyone ready?" Queen Moon asked her comrades, the Magical High Commission nodded in agreement as they all began to charge towards the Knight of Vengeance, the Knight laughed as the earth around him began to shake rather impressively, pieces of rubble began to drop down from the ceiling as the Knight of Vengeance was ready to purge his enemies for his Wand Bearer.

* * *

Marco sighed deeply as he was completely alone at his household...He was lying on the bed of the guest bedroom, it wasn't magical, it wasn't Star's room anymore, it was just a bland and grey bedroom with nothing more than a simple crooked dresser a blandly-colored bed.

Marco couldn't get the thought of his best friend out of his head...Star's smile, Star's blonde hair, star's perfect blue eyes...Marco couldn't forget her no matter how hard he tried and no matter how much time he spends with Jackie-Lynn Thomas, he can't forget about Star...

He can't forget about the girl that saved his life from a life of mediocrity and dullness.

"...What?" Marco said to himself when that thought came up to his head, he shook his cranium as an attempt to control his deep thoughts, he wasn't in love with Star, he never was and never will be, he's with the girl he truly loved, Jackie-lynn Thomas, he spent a lot more time with Jackie than he did Star.

In fact, he knew more about Jackie than Star! Like her favorite food...Favorite color...She likes skateboarding...And she got her necklace from a pawn shop...Marco shook his head, the Boy didn't want to reflect his choices on where his heart fluttered for.

Its been about two weeks since Star left Earth to return back to her home...There was no sign that she had to leave, there was no forewarning for the Human Boy so he could at least brace for impact when he heard that his best friend was gone from his left, one day he had his best friend...Then the next day? She was gone, and there was no trace of her after she left, her guest room turning back into the bland and basic guest room that it was formerly once was before Star arrived to Earth.

Marco could hear his own heart beat, slow and unmotivated as it used to beat with another heart, the heart of Star Butterfly rather than the heart of Jackie-Lynn Thomas.

Marco yelled in frustration, why are these thoughts popping up now? Why is Marco's mind is constantly flashing with great memories with his Best friend? Why doesn't he just call Jackie-Lynn Thomas and spend time with her? He has a phone...He has her phone number, he can do it right now...And yet, he doesn't even bother to take his phone out of his hoodie pocket.

Adding more to his withdrawal with his girlfriend, she hasn't been visiting him as often, while before it was every single day but after Star left to go back home? Only twice this week she ever visited and even then, they were only quick stops and nothing more.

There was one emotion that was coursing through Marco more than anything else however, it was simply an emotion deemed as regret...Did he took his time with Star for granted? Was he to mean to her? Did he spend to little time with her ever since Jackie became his girlfriend? Marco wasn't sure, a little part of him thinks that he deserved this, deserved this abandonment by the girl that could make him smile.

 **"Observant...Oh...Whats this?"** Marco heard, the voice was deep...Yet...Calming...Instantly gathering his attention as he quickly stood up from lying on the bed, quickly scanning around the room to see who it was the one who spoke.

"Show yourself whoever you are!" Marco said aloud as he looked prepared to take out whoever was spying on him.

 **"Reassuring...Oh...Don't worry child...I know that you're...Defensive...But I mean no harm..."** The Voice said slowly, Marco wasn't all that convinced by the voice's words, still in a martial arts combat pose.

 **"Welcoming...I am simply an friend...You may have met one of my apprentices"** The voiced paused softly before he resumed his bizarre speech pattern.

 **"Informative...His name is Strife...Questioning...Do you know him?"** Marco raised an eyebrow at the voice's speech pattern.

"I know that he's with Star...Sort of like a Guardian to her..." Marco answered, this time being a bit less defensive as he was previously.

 **"Impressed, Good...I am the Knightmaster of the Queens and Princess's of Mewni...I am..."** suddenly, sunlight from the window of the guest room began to shift and turn, almost as if the sun light rays were moving like ash and dust within the wind, the Sun light began to bend and a body came from a flashing bang of light...What appeared in front of the Mundane human Marco was the Knightmaster, he did not wear armor, in fact, his attire was a white angelic robe, coupled with a shadowing hood, covering the Masters face with the exclusion of his white glowing eyes.

The Knightmaster was not strong and titantic unlike his Apprenctices of Knights, not bulging with muscle and metal, he was tall for sure, over eight feet tall, taller than any of the Apprenctices that the Knightmaster made, but his posture was slanted and slouching, being only simply six feet tall due to the Knightmaster's back problems.

The Knightmaster had a sword like his apprentices, the difference is that it will forever be sheathed and simply kept it in case, the reason? So for the Knightmaster can use his sword as a walking stick.

 **"** **Introductory...I am...Storge...The Knightmaster of the Knights, I am the one who teaches lessons...I am the one who lends the pained their healing salve...I am the one who made emotions...I am...Storge..."** The Knightmaster introduced, his voice being akin to that of a grandfather, kind, quiet but wise and stern, it was enough for Marco to let go of his more defensive and untrusting emotions.

 **"Happiness...Thank you for trusting my words child..."** He said with a calming tone, being like a soft meadow breeze.

"Why are you here? In mundane earth? Shouldn't you be in somewhere more magical?" Marco asked without a second thought, not wanting to deal with the supernatural anymore ever since Star left.

 **"Deploring...Well...It seems like you are connected to the current Princess..."** Marco looked down to the ground for a moment, specifically remembering about the Blood Moon Ball and how he and Star are bonded to each other by the superstitious blood moon, the Knightmaster instantly saw the sudden swing of emotions from Marco.

 **"Sympathy...Do not cry child...Your redemption is near..."** Marco wasn't crying, he was simply rubbing off some sweat from his face.

"What do you mean by Redemption?" Marco questioned the Knightmaster, Storge only smiled lightly, with a little thump on the floor with his sheathed sword, a portal open in front of Marco Diaz, it was yellow and bright like the sun, blazing glorious as it waited for someone to enter.

 **"Bolstering...Your love is in danger child...Do not hide your emotions from me...I am the Master of Emotions..."** Marco looked hurt from such words from the Master, he was about to defend himself only to be stared down by Storge.

 **"Accusing...You kiss another maiden's lips...But you yearn for the right pair..."** The Knightmaster accused Marco who was piddly silent.

"...I know..." Was all Marco said, looking down to the floor and not daring to make eye contact with the Knightmaster.

"I should have...Asked Star out..." Marco said to himself, he noticed that his eyesight was getting watery and blurred.

"My first kiss should have been with her..." Marco continued as he felt tears streaming down his cheeks, guilt started to sink Marco, causing the boy to drop down to his knees, he felt weak, he felt embarrassed as he was sulking down right in front of the Knightmaster.

"I'm sorry...Star..." Was all Marco said, he felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked up to See the Knightmaster, his white eyes welling up with tears of Sympathy.

 **"Commending...Your strength that's within you is amazing...To keep going forward despite the doubts...Despite the Insecurities that dwell within you..."**

 **"Beckoning...This is why I need you for this...Child...Your love...Has been captured...And I require someone to save her...This is your time boy..."**


End file.
